Ever notice those “reading level” stats that Microsoft Word shows you? They make it seem like writing to a higher grade level is good, and writing to a lower grade level is dumb. But the opposite is true. Shane Snow, founder of content-marketing site Contently, compared the reading levels of several bestselling books. Michael Crichton’s work came in at an 8th grade reading level. Thomas Pynchon came in at 7th grade, Jane Austen at 5th, Ernest Hemingway at 4th, Goodnight Moon at 3rd.

See, reading level scores only measure how complicated your words, sentences, and paragraphs are. They have nothing to do with the sophistication of your ideas, or how good your writing is. Good writing can be easy enough for a third-grader to memorize, or it can be difficult for a college student to follow. There’s good and bad writing in every range of Snow’s chart.

Except for this: If you try to make your writing more complicated for the sake of seeming smart, your writing will be worse. If you make it simpler, it will be better. You don’t have to get spare like Hemingway; you just have to check that any complicated bits are complicated for a reason. Don’t use words unless you understand them. Don’t use semicolons unless you understand them. If you want to sound better, write “dumber.”